Tom Coughlin was asked yesterday if he’d ever gone into a game where one team must play without its two starting offensive tackles.

“I don’t know that I have seen it,” the Giants coach said.

That’s the undesirable situation in store for the Falcons, with left tackle Wayne Gandy and right tackle Todd Weiner out with knee injuries, leaving two players (Renardo Foster on the left side, Tyson Clabo on the right) who never have started an NFL game at tackle poised to do just that Monday night against the Giants.

Foster gets to try to contain Osi Umenyiora, the NFL’s sack leader with seven, while Clabo gets to deal with Michael Strahan, who two weeks ago set the Giants’ career sack record.

What would Coughlin do in such a dire predicament?

“Do the best you can with it and put together whatever you need to do as a plan to try to take advantage of their talent,” he said.

News of the two key Falcons injuries circulated around the Giants locker room, with players acknowledging the difficulty in replacing both tackles in the same game.

“You can’t completely abandon what you do to try and help other guys,” defensive tackle Barry Cofield said. “Hopefully Osi and Stray can get some great rushes early and they slide out to help them, that will open up for me and Fred (Robbins) to get a chance to join the party.”

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Rookie WR Steve Smith will miss his fourth straight game with a fractured clavicle. He did manage to do some individual drills and caught passes from the Juggs machine.

“Coach Coughlin is on me about getting out there and practicing,” Smith said. “I almost feel like I have full strength and my motion feels way better, but it’s still weak. I think I’m a week away. They understand. They don’t want you to go out there, hurt yourself and hurt the team even more.”

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Umenyiora (knee) began this week as he left off last week: not practicing. He’ll try to get on the field today. Also not in action were WR Plaxico Burress (ankle) and RB Derrick Ward (ankle). . . . K Lawrence Tynes did not have a banner practice, at one point missing three consecutive field goal attempts from 30, 35 and 39 yards. He did manage to hit two others. In case you’re wondering, K Josh Huston recently signed onto the Bengals practice squad, so if the Giants want him, he’s available to be signed to their active roster. . . . The Giants signed RB Quinton Smith (Rice) to their practice squad. . . . For the Falcons, LB Keith Brooking (hamstring) did not practice.